The truth about Corporal Punishment

Earlier in the week I came across a truly fascinating document. It is entitled "The End of Corporal Punishment at Finchley". This document is posted on the Finchley Catholic High School website in the archive section of the old boys association. It details entries for the final ten years of corporal punishment at the school. I challenge anyone who believes that Corporal Punishment has a place in the education system to read this. Just to give you some idea of the scale of use as a remedy, look at this graph from the document.

As you can see in the 1979-80 term, 140 pupils received the cane (or other such punishments). That is more than one every two days. So what sort of heinious crimes were the boys caned for. Here's a small selection :-

Now I attened the school from 1974 to 1978 (I completed my education at Orange Hill Senior High School, where I can't remember a single instance of corporal punishment and behaviour was certainly far better - especially mine). At the time it seemed quite normal to receive the cane for trivial offences, if caught by the wrong teacher. I got it once for "pushing in on the dinner queue" (I didn't want to be late for a lunchtime detention). I didn't give it much thought until I moved to Stockholm in 1981 for six months. There my friends were shocked that such practicises were still allowed. They'd been banned in Sweden decades before. In fact they thought I was lying about it and only believed me when a friend from FCHS showed up and confirmed the story.

Bad behaviour at Finchley at the time was met with a completely random and arbitary approach. It all depended on which teacher caught you. The better ones such as John Shutler would sit you down and talk to you about your behaviour. He caught me writing obscenities about his wife on the toilet wall (she was also a quite attractive teacher). His remedy? He arranged for me to redecorate the toilets at half term, paying for the paint out of my own pocket. He knew that I would have been expelled and I am eternally grateful for the sensible lesson he taught.

I wonder how many of the boys caned for gambling, smoking or talking in class were cured by a sound thrashing. I don't recall anyone saying "thats it for me". A couple of the teachers took a far more pragmatic view to smoking and would just pinch your fags (I suspect certain teachers contracted lung cancer entirely at the expense of the pupils).

I have one observation. The peak years for canings appear to be the Neil Kelly era - 1975 - 1979. Several years ago, my company took a boy on work experience from FCHS. As we were making the arrangements, I told the school secretary that I was an old boy of the school. She enquired when. I replied 1974-1978. She glumly announced "Oh we call that the dark period". She went on to assure me that the school was much better now.

Does Corporal punishment work? When I transferred to Orange Hill and realised that things were dealt with in sensible balanced and rational way, I concluded no. Reading this document has not changed that belief. I got my children to read this document. Suffice to say that in the age of childline they were truly shocked